Please log in

or

Register now for free

or

Choose your profile *

Email *

A valid e-mail address. All e-mails from the system will be sent to this address. The e-mail address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by e-mail.

Password *

Username *

Sign up to our newsletters

Higher education updates from the THE editorial team

World University Rankings news

Student newsletters

Send me special offers and marketing info from THE and selected partners

Make citations count

Nancy Rothwell (Opinion, April 30) suggests that the time is ripe to compare various metrics, such as citation counts, with research assessment exercise results.

In fact, studies have already been carried out that have compared citation counts with the 1996 and 2001 RAE results in the fields of archaeology, genetics, psychology and library and information manage-ment.

The results have all been consistent: there is a statistically significant correlation between total citation counts for the members of academic staff in a department and the RAE score obtained by that department.

It would certainly be useful to extend such research to all subject areas to see if this correlation is maintained in all areas of academic study.